Fecund
by middlecyclone
Summary: Olicity, alternating POVs. Felicity's crush and Oliver's too. Missing scenes. A solid, intense friendship; romance simmering slow & boiling over. Takes place during second half of Season One. DISCLAIMER: These characters were originally created by DC comics & I love what the CW has done w/them. Thank you so much for reviewing/commenting and for yr sweetness! :)
1. Chapter 1

_ Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow. _Felicity loved quirky nail polish names and this shade of dark green was just perfect. It reminded her of Aragorn, her second favorite green-hooded hero. But more importantly, it reminded her of Oliver Queen.

_Oliver, Ollie, _what everyone called him_. _

_ The Vigilante, _what everyone called him when he wore the hood_. _

_ The Green Arrow, _what she sometimes called him in her head.

_O, oh, _what she wanted to say every time she saw him; what she screamed out in her dreams when they were finally together the way she wanted them to be.

_Together_.

She'd painted both ring fingernails the new dark, secretly-sparkly green color, left the rest of her nails a nihilistic black. She'd been feeling moody lately—all the workingworkingworking and also working—not to mention a recent breakup she hadn't had time to process yet. Even still, she looked down at the green polish on her fingers and found her lips lifting in a tiny smile.

"What's funny?" Oliver asked. Felicity jumped in her chair, not realizing how far down the floaty river of thoughts she'd allowed her little brain boat to carry her. "Sorry. I'm sorry I scared you. Just need to grab my jacket," Oliver said, nodding towards the syrup-colored coat thrown on the desk next to hers.

"Oh. O. Nothing. Nothing's funny. I wasn't laughing," she said, giggling.

_O._ She'd even said it aloud.

"You're laughing now," Oliver pointed at her face before slipping his arms inside of his coat. He started on the buttons.

Felicity loved that coat—the color, the buttons, the pockets, the collar, when it was zipped all the way up. She loved watching him put it on. She looked over for a moment, then pretended to be carefully examining something on the computer screen in front of her. She leaned forward, squinted. Adjusted her glasses.

"Well, hacking _is_ hilarious," she said, shrugging. And finally, he laughed too.

She turned to see him throw his head back, his face in a full grin. That rarely happened. He wore the heaviness of his five years on the island, all he'd done when he'd gotten back—it was a hood so heavy, casting so much shadow, he barely needed the green one. She loved the little moments when he was taken off-guard enough to pull it back, to let some of that stuff fall away, even if only for a second or two.

"Well keep me posted on all of this. I've got some stuff to do upstairs and then I'm heading home. Call me if you need me. I'll be back later," Oliver said, still smiling at her.

"Alright. I'm close," Felicity said, thinking even that little bit somehow sounded dirty. _I'm close. _She cleared her throat. "What are you coming back for later?" She adjusted her glasses again and stood up from her chair, just to give herself something to do.

"The usual. Diggle and I have practice. And I need to do those," he said, glancing at the salmon ladder.

Felicity was careful not to sigh aloud. Oliver always took his shirt off when he did the salmon ladder. She didn't know how he did them and she didn't care, she just knew she could sit in her chair and watch him shirtless, dripping sweat and moving muscles she didn't even know he had. Didn't even know anyone had. It was a workout puzzle of timing and strength, the way he swung his legs and used his arms to hop the metal bar from one level to the next, up and up and up. She'd seen some guys on TV doing it for that ninja warrior show, but never saw anyone do it in person until Oliver.

It'd been weeks since she'd had sex but watching Oliver do the salmon ladder was so intense and sexy, she counted seeing him do that as _something_. Knew exactly when he'd done it last. _Wednesday at 9:35 pm. _He did it every couple of days. She looked at the computer, double-checked. _Yep, Friday_. Right on time. She twinkled thinking about it; the lovely distraction she could look forward to later.

"Well I'll be here. Hacking and laughing. Actually probably not laughing because this particular firewall is impossible to get around, but I'll figure it out," she said, sitting back down.

"Thank you, Felicity," Oliver said, "I owe you one."

He turned and walked quickly to the steps, took them two at a time.

"You're welcome, O," she said, knowing there was no way he could hear her. She tugged at her ear, her dangly gold feather earrings that almost looked like arrows. She looked down at the green polish as she got back to tippitytapping on the computer, thinking she'd definitely paint _all_ of her nails green by tomorrow. Her toes, too. No one would know. _Oliver wasn't the only one who could keep a secret._


	2. Chapter 2

Sure, he was a billionaire but Oliver Queen ate like a struggling college frat boy. He was walking into Big Belly Burger _again _when he saw John Diggle.

"There you are," Diggle said.

"Did you call me?" Oliver pulled his phone from his jacket pocket, glanced at it.

"No. I don't need to," Diggle said, pointing at his own phone, complete with tracking device. They always knew where the other one was—one of the benefits of being in the Team Arrow inner circle, which was actually more like an inner triangle. Oliver, Diggle and Felicity. _The Arrow Holy Trinity. _

"Did you just eat?" Oliver asked.

"Was going to. Changed my mind. As much as I love coming here, seeing Carly...I don't think I can stand eating burgers and fries for dinner again. Feel me?"

"I'm hungry though," Oliver said, looking inside.

"But we can do better. Come on," Diggle said.

When the boys walked in on Felicity, she was tippitytappiting as usual, white earbuds in. Oliver was careful not to startle her since he'd done that earlier. When she saw them, she snatched the earbuds out, whirled around in her chair.

"Lemme guess, you guys need me to hunt down some crazy kidnapper's dental records or figure out what kind of bottled water some drug dealer bought on his tenth birthday?" she said.

"No. Even more important," Oliver smirked.

"Way more important," Diggle chimed in.

"What?"

"Dinner. Food. We're tired of burgers," Oliver said.

"Then get pizza again."

"I had pizza yesterday," Diggle said.

"Me too," Oliver said.

"I know. We ate it together. I was there too, remember? Are you guys being serious?"

Oliver watched her hot-pink-lipgloss mouth when she talked. She was adorable-adorable but not only that, she was one of his real friends. He didn't have many. He had to keep so much of his life a secret, the people who knew the real him...well, those people were more special to him than he could describe. Attempting it was like trying to pick up marbles with closed fists—he just couldn't do it.

"We need suggestions, that's all," Diggle said.

Felicity sighed and stood up, grabbed her coat.

"Ok look it's not like this is gonna become a habit or anything so you'd better not get too used to it. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm gonna be a stand-in for your moms or your girlfriends or whatever," Felicity said, quickly, like her words were a typewriter click-clacking across a crisp, blank page.

Oliver raised an eyebrow at her. He loved when she was like this. Her honesty was one of his favorite things about her, along with the way her ponytail swished and how she smelled so good all the time. Like apples and rain.

"Not that either of you would _want_ me to be your stand-in girlfriend. Obviously neither of you have problems finding girlfriends and women to spend time with. I mean...I'm a woman and we spend a _lot_ of time together...I'm stopping now," Felicity said, buttoning her coat.

"Where are you going?" Oliver asked.

"_We _are leaving. You two are coming with me. My house. Now. I'll make us all a proper dinner and then you can get back to your burgers and fries and guy-stuff...grabbing your crotches and wrestling and being all tough...whatever else you do when I'm not around. Well I guess you sometimes do it when I _am_ around...look that's not the point. Come on," she said.

Diggle and Oliver looked at each other and cracked up. Finally, Felicity laughed too. It sounded like bells.

Oliver looked over at the computers and saw that Felicity had made progress with their latest assignment. She was amazing. There wasn't anything else he needed to do tonight and he _was_ so hungry he'd eat just about anything. Plus, spending an evening with his closest friends, seeing Felicity's place for the first time _and_ getting a home cooked meal was way too much to pass up. He was stoked to see what her place was like—the pictures on her mantle and the little things she had stuck to her fridge. Going to someone's house for the first time could be so intimate and sweet. _Who was she when she was at home?_

"We're right behind you," Oliver said as he and Diggle followed Felicity up the steps.


	3. Chapter 3

In Felicity's little kitchen, the water as almost to a rolling boil and the tomato sauce and turkey meatballs were simmering. They'd had some cheese and cracker appetizers while she'd made the boys help her smash tomatoes and roll meatballs. Oliver was at the kitchen sink washing his hands and Diggle had excused himself to the bathroom down the hall.

"Aw, I feel cheated because you didn't put this on," Oliver said, fingering the ruffly polka-dot apron hanging from the back of the pantry door. He raised his eyebrow. Felicity looked away. Her cheeks burned as she poured some more red wine in her glass and refilled Oliver's and Diggle's as well.

"Well if you're good, I just may put it on for you later," she said, not realizing how dirty it sounded until it was said. She lifted her wine glass to her mouth.

Oliver laughed. "Okay. Incentive. I'll indeed be on my very best behavior, Miss Smoak," he said, retrieving his full glass from the counter.

Felicity couldn't help herself from picturing wearing the ruffly apron while Oliver was wearing his hood. Sure she'd worked on plenty of rescue fantasies over the last month or so but this one with the apron was nice and new.

_ Maybe it'd be pouring rain against the windows and she'd be wearing the apron and cooking. She'd hear a knock on the door but before she could look out and see who it was, she'd hear Oliver behind her. The Vigilante. The Green Arrow. She'd turn and see him standing there in his hood, his quiver full of sharpened arrows. He'd motion for her to back away from the door and she'd watch him, his tight ass in those slick green pants. He'd look through the peephole and tell her not to worry. It was nothing. It was a false alarm. He'd pull the hood back and reveal his full face, dark paint circling his eyes. He'd say he just needed one thing before he left. She'd ask what the one thing was and he'd say "You, Felicity. I need you." And they'd kiss. He'd untie the strings of her apron and whatever she was cooking on the stove would begin boiling over but they wouldn't care because it wouldn't matter. Nothing like that would matter. The only thing that would matter would be her mouth on Oliver's mouth and them having the same breath as they sank to the floor with the thunder growling outside like the soon-to-be unleashed beasts growing inside of them, every part of them, hungry and growling and wanting._

"Felicity. Felicity. I'll put the pasta in. No worries," Diggle said, scooting next to her. The water was boiling over and hissing against the heat but she hadn't realized it. She hadn't even realized Diggle was back in the kitchen. She was so far into her ruffly apron fantasy, she'd forgotten where she was for a moment. The oven timer for the garlic bread went off and Oliver took the potholder from her and slipped it on his hand.

"You boys seem to know what you're doing so I'll just stand back and...let you do yo thang," Felicity said, backing away.

"What do you think? Eleven minutes?" Diggle asked, resetting the oven timer for the pasta.

"Perfect," Felicity said, leaning against the counter, drinking her wine. She was beginning to feel the soft edge of a blurry buzz creeping over her head. She pictured it as Oliver's hood. She couldn't stop obsessing over that fucking hood and didn't really want to. She wanted him to be wearing it the first time they were together. She wanted to watch it fall down low over his face when he was on top of her. _No. That was nuts_. Of course she wanted him to be shirtless when he was on top of her. His body was insane. Maybe he'd be wearing the hood the first time they kissed and then by the time they made it to the bedroom he'd have his shirt off. _That sounded better. _She was editing her fantasies now, watching him and Diggle finish dinner.

There was a knock at the door and she wasn't sure if she was imagining it or not so she tried to ignore it.

Oliver slid the bread from the oven and placed it on the counter. He bent down to pick up a wine cork that had fallen to the floor.

"I like your toes," Oliver said when he stood up. Felicity looked down at her bare feet —the green polish on her toes. Green for Green Arrow, green for Oliver Queen—a little secret she had with herself and never intended for him to see but she'd taken her shoes off of course and although she considered herself a pretty good and decent feminist, she loved being barefoot in the kitchen. She just never expected Oliver Queen to be _with_ her in the kitchen.

"Oh. Oh. Yeah," she said quickly, "um, did you guys hear someone knocking on the door? I thought I did but wasn't sure." She felt silly for the rhyme but was so thankful for a subject change.

"I'll go check it out," Diggle said, heading out of the kitchen.

Felicity watched the blue numbers of the oven timer counting down as she finished her wine. Oliver leaned against the counter next to her.

"Felicity, it's some guy named Brad asking for you," Diggle's voice boomed from the next room.

"Who's Brad?" Oliver asked quietly, looking over at her. He looked kinda serious and Felicity didn't want him to worry. She told him it was fine. It was nothing. But.

"Just lovely. Shit. Brad. Brad would be my ex-boyfriend," she said. She rolled her eyes and put her wine glass down.


End file.
